| This year, International Women's Day is taking place at a time of heightened consciousness of the need to renew the resistance. Millions have taken part in demonstrations to reject government of police powers represented by the new Trump administration as well as repudiate the misogyny, racism and aggression espoused by the U.S. and other big powers, some in the name of progressive values. Many are also becoming conscious of the need for political movements in defence of rights and against war. How to identify and overcome what is blocking the fight for women's rights and contribute to the emancipation of all working people is on everyone's minds. One conclusion increasingly drawn is that the existing institutions the people are saddled with are anachronistic. One hundred and six years ago, the first International Women's Day was celebrated to focus on the call for peace issued by women in Europe prior to World War I. International Women's Day is in fact from its beginning imbued with the spirit of proletarian internationalism because it is centred on the striving of women for their emancipation in the context of the emancipation of the entire working class and oppressed peoples. Women have always stood in the forefront of the struggle for rights, peace, and the progress of society. This shows that the question of women's fight to affirm their own rights is inseparable from the issue of political power and the fight of the working people to exercise leadership over the society, build their own institutions and put an end to exploitation, oppression and war. |